Essays and Reporting by Jaime Omar Yassin

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More Arrests at OGP, Update, at least four more arrested earlier, Update 2: ten out of eleven remain in jail

This is a quick synopsis of a police raid that occurred on vigilers at OGP today at approximately 2pm.

At around 12pm, police arrived at the tree sit and began to arrest people in the vicinity. No reason was given. These people are known in the camp as:

Leila

Josh

Momo

Around the same time, at 12pm DC Jeffrey Israel of OPD told vigilers that their area was taking on “the appearance of an encampment” people needed to clean up, and have the area organized to avoid arrest and citation. Vigilers conferred as a group, cleaning and organizing. But they also pointed out that property had been taken without compensation in a previous raid last week.

According to witnesses, property had still not been given back. At around 2pm, OPD Lt. Harrison, arrived, the same officer who led raid before. Witnesses say that Harrison claimed that he was now leading the operation, and that everything would have to be cleared or people claiming their items would be arrested.

Vigilers then began to take possession of their items. The food table was moved off site. Officers then began to arrest vigilers and others present. Those arrested are known in the plaza as:

Carly:
Shorty:
Khalid:
Alex:

Update: These people were also arrested earlier, according to other witnesses.

Hamza:

Brian:

Tiffany:

And one other who’s not identified as yet.

According to witnesses, those arrested had done nothing apparently illegal, and no reason was given for their arrest. WItnesses asked for the cause of arrest, were told to talk to the public information officer, who also refused to answer questions Shorty is a diabetic and needs medication, according to witnesses. The interfaith tent and tree sit remain, and were not subject to arrest.

The Egyptian Women’s Solidarity Rally continues as scheduled.

Update 2:

As of 12am December 31, only one person arrested at OGP today has been released. Approximately ten others remain in jail under various charges, including “inciting a riot”. They’ll probably remain in jail through the holiday weekend, until at least Tuesday, when we’ll know more.

We’ve been looking at video from the melees today, and as usual, it reveals cops aggressively and violently pushing occupiers and bystanders, and slamming targeted individuals to the ground, where they’re humiliated and brutalized as they’re handcuffed. The almost entire male police force seems to take a special pleasure in pushing women around from what I saw.

Looking at the circumstances surrounding each arrest, it appears that many individuals were targeted–either deliberately, or at random–and were not actually engaged in any offenses at all. A police official would simply point to an individual and command police to arrest them, though they appear to be doing nothing different than the people standing next to them. I’ll post edited videos when they’re available.